Exive II
Gabriela Ruiz

Gansevoort Street

July 10

Presented as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, a forklift, built for cargo, for weight, for work, becomes Ruiz’s partner, lifting her into the air with a slow, deliberate tenderness that feels both perilous and reverent. Her body rises, not as a spectacle of fragility, but as a figure of power, suspended, carried, guided through space by a dance of steel, air, and breath. 

The performance shifts between sharp mechanical precision and moments of ecstatic release, where menial labor turns luminous and gravity becomes negotiable. There is an echo of the quinceañera, of ceremonial elevation, of being lifted into visibility, yet here the ritual is rewritten.

Duration
Approximately 30 minutes

Gabriela Ruiz (b. San Fernando Valley, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles) is a multimedia artist working across performance, sculpture, video, and digital media. Ruiz has presented solo exhibitions at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2023); Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs (2022); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2019). Selected group exhibitions have been held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2026); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (2026); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2025); Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles (2025, 2024, 2021); Pérez Art Museum Miami (2024); The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Riverside Art Museum (2023); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2018); ICA LA, Los Angeles (2018); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (2022); and CASTTL and Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp (2019).

Ruiz has performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2026); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2019); ICA LA, Los Angeles (2018); Centro Cultural Clavijero, Morelia (2018); and USC Roski School of Art and Design as part of Pacific Standard Time: Live Art LA/LA (2018). She has delivered lectures and participated in panels at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2023); The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Riverside (2023); University of California, Santa Barbara (2022); California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (2022); University of Southern California, Los Angeles (2019); and California State University, Northridge (2018). Ruiz has participated in residencies at Pioneer Works, New York (2026); Fountainhead Residency, Miami (2025); the Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan (2023); and the Outburst Program at Palm Springs Art Museum (2022). She is a recipient of the Fountainhead Arts Forum Award (2025) and the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2024).

Ruiz’s work is in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Palm Springs Art Museum.